Topcut buys Bullmer

TopCut GmbH purchased all property and assets of Bullmer Spezialmaschinen GmbH, Mehrstetten on 1st July 2009. Bullmer is a leading manufacturer of automatic cutters and spreading machines for the clothing and textile industries, established for 75 years in Germany. The two merged companies will trade under the name Topcut-Bullmer.

Anton Stahl, the Managing Director of Topcut Bullmer said “Bullmer customers could always rely on a trustworthy and competent partner in terms of product quality and of customized machine developments. TopCut is a leading manufacturer worldwide for automated leather cutting systems and operates successfully in the field of automated processes of technical fibres and composites. The strengths of both companies are brought together in a joint market performance.

I was previously Managing Director of Bullmer until July 2005 and so I am fully aware of the expertise that exists within the company. the complete research and development departmen is maintained and additionally merged with the R&D resources of TopCut. This internal competence-centre will not only assure and boost the production site located in Germany but also provides a solid base for the new company.” http://www.topcut-systems.de/english/about.htm

Human Solutions buys Assyst

28th May 2009 Human Solutions GmbH acquired all the software products, software related services and hardware supplies of Assyst GmbH. As of that date the new Managing Director is Dr Andreas Seidl. Humans Solutions is based in Kaiserlautern, Germany.

Assyst GmbH will remain an independent company with its registered offices in Dornach, near Munich. “Human Solutions and Assyst have had an intensive and trusting working relationship in different business spheres for several years now”, says Dr Seidl. “The products in the company’s key segments, Computer Aided Design (CAD), Product Data Management (PDM) and automarker.com play a decisive role here, since they are already being used in the production of several thousand customers all over the world.

The associated business units of Development, Sales and Support will therefore be retained and successfully further developed. Thanks to the absorption of all the company's key personnel, close co-operation on the product and sales/technical levels and a new organisation, which will utilize the synergies of both companies, we have achieved the best possible scenario for successful cooperation – and our customers will reap the benefits of this. The complete value-added chain in the apparel industry can now be supplied – from the shop to product development and the pattern-making team.

This takeover has created one of the largest, Germany-wide specialist suppliers for the apparel sector.” Human Solutions is a leader in 3D body scanning and the realistic simulation and integration of anthropometric/ergonomic data into product development. It has more than 300 customers, including well-known companies such as Karstadt, Odermark, Selfridges, the US and Swiss armies, car firms Jaguar, BMW and Volkswagen, and the aircraft builder Airbus Industries.

Zund Cutters

Assyst Bullmer Ltd have been supplying Zund cutters to UK companies for over 10 years. Zund cutters are manufactured by Zund Systemtechnik in Switzerland. Most of the Zund cutters we supply are conveyorised as this is well suited to our markets, though fixed tables are also available. Zund cutters are used to cut products as varied as covers (see photo), made to measure tailoring, aerospace composites, aircraft ducting, upholstery, Formula 1 and other racing cars, clothing and soft play equipment.

Assyst Bullmer also provides blades, service, spares and cutting belts for all Zund cutters. Many Zund blades can be re-sharpened which is a particularly economical and popular service, contact Assyst Bullmer to see about re-sharpening your blades.

Premiumcut

One of the key principals of the continuing development of the Premiumcut is that it should be adaptable to process, to cut differing types of material depending on the application. For this reason over recent years developments have taken the machine in the direction of offering a modular tool system, this allows the user to interchange tools or even carry out several tasks with different tools in one production run. The benefit of all this being reduced production times, with high material usage and less finishing required.

"Increasingly we find we are asked to provide a machine which will carry out a wide range of processes and tasks. This can be anything from cutting PVC to thick carpet with heavy rolls or from printing recognition marks to sanding materials such as Hypalon©, used in inflatable boat manufacture. At the same time we are building machines required to do all this while maintaining Assyst Bullmer's high nesting and material utilisation capabilities."

2007 has seen the introduction of new features to the machine which now includes a full range of knife cutting tools. The most popular options being the electrically oscillating knife, the pneumatic knife, the driven rotary blade and the routing head. The new additions to the Premiumcut include the grinding mechanism for sanding and the ultrasonic cutting tool, used to melt and seal a material to prevent fraying once it's been cut.

"Our aim is to allow businesses to invest once and cut everything on a machine which is robust and strong enough to handle a full production environment. As a company our capabilities are required to be as varied as our customers'. We want operators to be able to set the machine running and have only minimal personnel at its control, required only to monitor progress and offload parts after being cut."

In addition to cutting machinery Assyst Bullmer also develop and sell other machines such as feeding cradles to unroll and automatically feed material onto the conveyor, this particularly useful for materials which are hard to unwind or have a tendency to stretch or come off the roll unevenly. Another department of the company also develop an in house range of CAD software targeted especially at fabric engineering for pattern design, nesting and cut optimisation.

PVB and SGP Glass cutting

Assyst Bullmer has developed a cutter for safety glass. The Cad software automatically uploads the job list of shapes to be cut, nests the shapes for maximum efficiency a Premiumcut cuts and identifies each component. As glass manufacturers have a variety of shapes to cut on any one day Assyst Bullmer’s nesting can save significant amounts of material.

Cutting and grinding

Manufacturers of inflatable boats (RIBS) and other products made with laminates such as Hyperlon need to grind the surface at seams in order to roughen the surface and allow the bonding glue to adhere to the Hyperlon. Some users of rubber also need to buff the surface of the rubber prior to joining or vulcanising. As a manual process this is a fairly unpleasant, dirty job requiring containment with operators equipped with dust masks. Buff lines are often parallel sided whereas the manual tools grind in a circular motion so resulting quality can be variable.

Assyst Bullmer have developed a unique grinding device that fits on the Premiumcut that roughens the material surface top a precise depth. Linked with the grinding system are an automatic height adjustment to maintain and even depth of grind and integrated dust removal system.
The system is already in use at a leading UK RIB manufacturing company

Automatic Nesting

Assyst Bullmer's automatic nesting service, www.automarker.com is finding success with a growing range of applications. The majority of users nest patterns to cut out of textile but recently users have been nesting products such as graphic signs, lampshades, composite aircraft wing components, furniture laminate and artificial grass.

Most companies with patterns available on CAD are able to use www.automarker.com as shapes can be nested in many common formats, often the CAD systems used by these customers are very competent 3D or 2D packages but the nesting capabilities of automarker have yielded large material savings.

Assyst Bullmer, Zund, Algotex & Ioline

Assyst Bullmer integrate machinery from companies such as Algotex, Zund, Ioline in the systems we supply to customers.

Assyst Bullmer have been selling cutters from Zund Systemtechnik for over 10 years and have many installations throughout the UK. Zund are renowned for high accuracy. Zund cutters are in use in diverse industries such as carbon fibre composites for motor racing and aerospace, upholstery, soft play equipment, inflatables, gaskets, carpet cutting and clothing manufacture.

Assyst Bullmer's engineers have been Zund factory trained in Switzerland, and provide training and service. All spare parts are also supplied and the re-sharpening service for Zund knife blades is particularly economical.

Algotex ink jet plotters are in use to plot wide format markers, typically 1.5m-2m wide. The Streamjet uses standard HP cartridges for easy supply and economical running. Assyst Bullmer engineers have been trained at the Algotex factory in Bologna.

Part Marking with inkjets

Most single ply cutters have a marking capability to identify cut components, ensure traceability or mark attachment points. Ink jets are increasingly required as the speed of inkjet application allows quick processing. Assyst Bullmer can mount inkjets to work in a single direction, which can be very cost effective, or to rotate and print in any direction.